Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

As someone who aspires to work in the video games industry, I find Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online incredibly fascinating. Unlike most virtual reality stories, GGO actually explores video games in interesting ways beyond just a flashy action spectacle. And yes, it has the spectacle as well.

GGO is far different, and better than the rest of the Sword Art Online franchise; for starters, you don’t even need to watch the originals to watch this spinoff. There are no related characters, no Kirito. The only similarity they share is the world they take place in. The original SAO is mentioned a few times and surprisingly the new series writer frequently criticises the old one. GGO focuses on the in-depth details of its game world and the friendships between the cast, rather than the melodrama and cheesy romance of the original.

Taking place in 2026, GGO follows Karen a college student with a height complex, namely she’s way taller than she’d like to be. Walking into signs, gawked at by passersby, low self-confidence, and constantly comparing herself to the group of cute short girls she sees every day. When she discovers VR games like SAO, she’s hesitant because of the controversy over people being trapped in the game is still discussed on the news. But she is willing to try them if it means she’d get the chance to be shorter. The character creator system being randomized is the only outright bad game design decision in GGO, but that’s just how the original series wrote it. This minor issue can be excused because it eventually leads Karen to Gun Gale Online, a gritty first-person shooter where she’s able to be her ideal short height. The lead character has a pretty good motivation to play the game makes the show all the more compelling, it’s perhaps a simple reason but much more than we were ever given for Kirito.

Simplistic characterization is all GGO really needs because it’s main focus is on the intense firefights. The first episode serves to thoroughly explain the mechanics of the game so that the rest of the series can play with the established rules. For what is essentially an exposition episode, the information is presented by showing rather than just telling in the Battle Royale style game mode called Squad Jam. While the visuals are simply above average, the action is surprisingly engaging with the strategizing and tactics explained through banter between the protagonist, plucky pink camouflaged Karen, but with the in-game name LLENN and her partner M. Their group’s dynamic is clear from the start, LLENN is the one who has to run into the fight as a decoy and draw away the attention of enemies while M takes a vantage point to snipe them while they’re distracted. Their personalities perfectly fitted to their roles in the fight; LLENN is anxious with plenty of funny reaction faces, sporadically running into the battlefield. While M is patient and unwavering, coldly issuing orders with the goal of winning regardless of the danger it puts his partner in.

Played out like a game of chess, careful planning and positioning are invaluable. Seeing the strategies LLENN and others use to lead them to success is incredibly satisfying; they're not professionals so there's always a chance they will run into mistakes now and then, and their flaws are part of each character. For LLENN and M, we're given enough details to know their relationship is based in needing one another to execute their strategy, the bait and switch, but beyond that, they’re two incompatible pieces. Through seeing them fight and their banter we learn the mechanics of the game; an intermittent scan reveals every challenger’s location, the red lasers indicating bullet trajectory, dead players can be used as human shields, health and bullet count are detailed and are at consistent values throughout the show.

The writer’s knowledge of the inner workings of a complex video game is what makes GGO so believable. Look no further than the tense action scenes, despite being acknowledged as just a game they still have stakes. The original SAO had poorly explained rules to its game, so instead it chose to contrive tension by trapping the players in the game world and punishing anyone who died in-game with death in reality. But there is no such lazy writing here. In the original SAO no one of importance ever died because they’d be gone for good, but in GGO there is no such plot armor. They’re in a fight to the death after all so it's inevitable most characters will die or be gravely wounded.
GGO is tense to watch in the same way watching a professional streamer is, you’re rooting for them not just because they're an enjoyable host but because you want to see them overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds they face.

The action spectacle itself is well done too, it’s clear that Studio 3Hz was having a lot of fun making this. There’s no shortage of slow-mo climactic moments in firefights with bullets flying past players like The Matrix. A few thrilling vehicle fights happen as well. There’s even a lightsaber later on in the series used to devastating effect unlike anything else seen in the show. Considering combat is the main focus of the series, it’s great that GGO is always able to keep it refreshing. Guns are rendered with excellent detail, CGI is frequently used quite well to allow the camera to move freely and to ensure action scenes are fast-paced and flow well. Character animation is fluid when it counts with close-ups and slow-motion used to raise the tension in close encounters.

Plenty of long shots of the battlefield are shown so you can keep track of the proximity of players and can follow the action as well as the protagonist does. What creates the most thrills is the visceral audiovisual feedback of the gunshots. Environments that are shot are visibly blasted, with loud shots suited to the wide variety of gun types used, and the effects on players who are shot. Violence is styled to the video game with red pixels that spurt out from wounds like blood. One might think a video game would limit the possibilities of the violence, but GGO has its fair share of decapitations and limbs being lopped off in combat. Battles gradually escalate in intensity throughout the show, the game mechanics established from the start remain consistent and they're experimented with to exciting effect. Eri Aoi’s opening song “Ryusei” is well suited to the battle-oriented series along with a striking showcase of the cast. The soundtrack is equally stellar. Whether it be the hard rock or the frantic techno pieces, all of the background music serves to electrify action scenes.

Aside from the action, there is enough intrigue in GGO’s characters writing for it to provide a thoughtful discussion on video games. With the writer of Kino’s Journey, Keiichi Sigsawa, there’s depth to the characters in spite of the series’ focus on gunplay. Escapism is a theme intrinsic to any video game story, thankfully Sigsawa understands this and weaves it into every character. Karen enters the game to become a shorter, more ideal version of herself, her skill in game grants her confidence in real life to overcome her complex. The first friend she meets, Pitohui plays the game to escape stress and relieve her anger, a portrayal leaning more on the negative end of escapism which leads her to become the antagonist of the second half. The show tries to sell her as a crazed SAO fanatic, but at first it doesn’t seem believable enough because we merely hear about her insanity from M. Once we see the brutal ways she kills her foes in her Squad Jam against LLENN, it becomes much easier to believe she’s out of touch with reality.

Pitohui’s rather serious subject matter unexpectedly fits with the show’s more wryly comedic tone because of her outlandish personality and character design. From the cross tattoos on her face to scare off creeps online, to the absurd levels of frivolity she treats her enemies in combat, she’s one of the most entertaining rivals of the season. In the latter half of the show when Karen’s friend Fuka joins her for the Squad Jam, much of the in-depth tactics are thrown out the window by her lack of care for the game which brings about the campiest and wild action sequences the show provides. Perhaps they’re not as intelligently planned out, but they make up for it with entertainment value and homages to classic action movies and moment to moment humor in the midst of chaos. All of their seiyuu do a great job of selling their overdone personalities in the game world while toning it down to a believable level in reality.

Shown in a more positive light is the gymnastics team, fans of LLENN, that play Squad Jams to communicate better with one another. In between the Squad Jams, the show revisits the real world to catch up with the cast and mainly to discuss the next game and future Squad Jams. These scenes are a good reprieve from Gun Gale’s battlefields. Serving to even out the pacing and introduce characters. The gymnastics team is just a bunch of kids who walk by Karen in real life and wish to be as tall as her (a sort of role reversal) and after fighting one another in the first Squad Jam they enter the second as allies. They’re admittedly a bit one note, but I wouldn't call them cliched or stereotypical. They all have an attribute in their game avatar and how they behave in-game which is reflected in their real-world counterpart.

By the end of the series, there’s a noticeable change in all of the characters that is directly connected to the ways the game affected them. The ending provided a satisfying final stance on the bigger themes of positive versus negative escapism, as well as a completion to LLENN's arc that's as monumental and satisfying as the show had foreshadowed it to be. The final episode is one of the funniest, most shockingly great endings of the season that rewards you for following along with the minor story details and provides the best tongue-in-cheek comedy of the series.

Score Breakdown:
[Story: 7/10] In-depth game world, sparse plot.
[Art: 7/10] Modest budget, dynamic action scenes.
[Sound: 8/10] Great music and enjoyable seiyuus.
[Character: 7/10] Simplistic, but they each offer intrigue.
[Enjoyment: 9/10] Thrilling fights, plenty of variation, fun and likable cast.

[Final Score: 7.6/10]
Sword Art Online Alternative is the most entertaining entry in the franchise, it doesn’t take itself too seriously while also providing enough depth to be compelling. What it lacks in narrative high points it more than makes up for with a well-written game world that remains consistent with its logic throughout the show. Upon first glance, the cast seems paper thin, but with time it becomes clear how much care went into interweaving their arcs with interesting video game related themes.

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6 years ago when Sword Art Online first aired, that piece of work caused controversy that still generates discussion to this very day. Then Summer 2014 came and we got the sequel known as Sword Art Online II. While being an improvement of the original series, it didn’t really amplify itself as a big improvement. Four years later, here we are again. Except this time, it’s not an actual continuation of the main series. Instead, we got this spinoff known as Sword Art Online: Alternative Online.

To be clear, you don’t need to watch any of the previous series in the franchise. In fact, it doesn’t even matter if it’s the first time you found out this show exists. SAO: Alternative Online is the title as it suggests, an alternative story that takes place based on the SAO franchise. The original light novel is written by Keiichi Sigsawa rather than Reki Kawhara although he does provide supervision for the series. It takes place in a shared universe in the virtual world known as Gun Gale Online. The story deals with a university student named Karen Kohiruimaki who decided to join GGO under the alias “LLENN”.

Now I’ll be frank. I’m actually a bit of a fan of the Sword Art Online video games. I’ve played Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization and more recently, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. The games actually contains a fair amount of enticing gameplay. After clocking a decent amount of hours in Fatal Bullet, I came to realize that Alternative Gun Gale Online isn’t so much different than the game itself. My impression of the first few episodes felt like the anime dropped me inside a video game. We have the main character LLEEN as she enters the Gun Gale Online world. She’s rather petite with a short height. In the real world, Karen is actually tall and has a height complex. As such, she takes on her chibi form in the virtual world to build her own self-esteem. There’s quite a bit difference in their personalities between her real life and virtual character that they almost seem like two different people. However, the anime spends a majority of the time on her in-game avatar.

The show set some red flags at first because of this premise. First of all, how are we supposed to take a character like LLEEN seriously when she looks like a kid dressed in pink and a rabbit-looking hat? The first few episodes chronicles her life in the GGO world as we learn about her role. It also drops a fair amount of exposition about the mechanics of the game she participates in. Similar ro the SAO II, this series mainly involves firearms. This is also similar in comparison to the Fatal Bullet game as we see a variety of weaponry. LLEEN’s choice of weapon is a pink P90 submachine-gun she nicknamed “P-chan”. It matches her style because of her speed and agility. In the meantime, the episode also introduces both allies and rivals as LLEEN spends more time in the GGO world. These include characters such a Pitohui, M, and Fuzarioh. Along the way, it’s easy to see LLEEN’s confidence develop as a player compared to her real life persona.

Unfortunately, I can’t really say the main cast of the series are memorable characters. LLENN is probably the only character that’s worth investing time into despite being having a childish personality. This is a bit contrast to Pito, who seems to have some psychological issues especially when she’s on the battlefield. M is a character that may feel like a comic relief after you realize his real personality. Finally, Fuka is LLEEN’s partner and best friend with a big obsession with VR games. While there’s definitely character chemistry between the main cast members, there’s not much development at all involving them. It’s a shame since the show could have really took the opportunity to make them into larger than life characters. Instead, they are just participants in the game for their roles. In real life, their characters are too average to be marketable and doesn’t really sell their personalities in any appealing way. All other characters in the series are easily forgettable and in fact a disgrace to the game itself, especially the perverted men. I think at one point, LLENN even asked “Do only lechers play this game?”

By this point, you may be asking yourself if this show is worth watching. Honestly, it’s not a hard question to answer but be prepared for a typical sci-fi/shounen story. The series feels like it’s mainly aimed for gamers and fans of the franchise. If you’re not a fan of this type of genre, then you may not get the best experience from this. Even after I played the games, I felt like show could of done more to develop the plot. Every episode that takes place in the GGO world feels the same with the battle royale-esque vibe and exposition. I do admit that the battles themselves can be quite exciting at times but once you’ve seen a lot of it, the hype dies quickly. The cheesy words used in dialogues borders to creep factor at times while the comedy remains generally lighthearted throughout the show. On the other hand, the real life portrayal of characters in later episodes steps it up to the plate. Some segments are genuinely heartwarming to watch and a few are rather important to establish character roles. It blurs the line between fiction and reality like the way it should be.

This is 3Hz’s first attempt at adapting a light novel series. Previously, they worked on original projects and a manga adaptation back in 2016. To me, they did a fair job although not an overly impressive one. I should say that praise should be given for the battle choreography as it feels like how a video game is portrayed. It has a similar style of the Fatal Bullet game including the death scenes. Camera angles, body movements, and character expressions are also well decorated to bring out memorable moments. Even the comedic factors sells well with the clever timings. There’s also a variety of weapons that are accurately portrayed from the light novel and games such as the P90, M107A1 (anti-material rifle), KTR-09 (Assault Rifle), photon energy sword, and among others. It does fell flat in the monster gallery though as the show focuses much more on conflict between the players. Unfortunately, I have to admit the overall world setting really doesn’t set the bar high for a virtual game. Every battleground environment looks the same that after you’ve seen it once, it feels like you’ve seen it all. The barren landscapes may looks suitable for the show but it’s extremely tedious and lacks creativity. There’s not even any diverse maps this season.

On the contrary, I will say the anime’s soundtrack lived up expectations and perhaps gone a bit beyond. The battle OST creates an exciting mood as we see players fight for their lives. Character voices may sound a bit generic but I confess that they work wonderfully for their personalities. The theme songs brings back the familiar mood of the previous SAO series if you’re a fan of those. In essence, it really works.

Sword Art Online: Alternative Online felt more like playing a video game than a watching an anime. After finishing this series, it felt like the creator wanted us to experience what’s like being part of the GGO world. As I mentioned before, this anime seems to adhere to fans of the franchise and video game players. The sensation of battle royale games has been a phenomenon in the most recent years. It took the world by storm and may remain that way for awhile. For a show like this though, there’s still room for improvement.

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Video games have been part of our everday life. Either from anime and to our real world, this type of entertainment have grown massive for years and it is still growing until now. Back in Summer 2012, the whole anime community was stunned as the first season of Sword Art Online came.
With its mixed reviews saying it was either the worst or the best series, the whole community is divided until now even a season 2 came, along with the movie Ordinal Scale. Looking back to the past recent season which was Spring 2018, we were given a ton of new shows and sequels. Along came a spin-off that will judge anime fans, who have watched Sword Art Online. That is the spin-off 'Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online', which I am going to review on now.

The setting of the story is alternative to Sword Art Online 2, where we are first introduced to a virtual shooter game named GGO (Gun Gale Online). Alternative, meaning the characters will be different as well and the story, giving us a relief from the main problem of the original series, which are the characters.

The plot revolves around Karen Kohiruimaki (Llenn), who has a problem about her tall height. Her complexity have been her problems. From being jealous to cute, little girls and always knocking her head into a high platform, this has become a nuisance on her real life basis. But this complexity of hers is a good character quality. We, audience, have given a bit of a background of her issue which leads us speculating possible outcomes of her overcoming it and we audience are anticipating that. Unlike, the main character from the original Sword Art Online series, which is Kirito, we really don't know his past or characteristics in real life. We just know that he is a beta tester, concluding that he is good with the game SAO and with this we can speculate the outcomes that our main protagonist can get out of the game.

Here on SAO Alternative, we have a clumsy main character, who found her dream into the game of Gun Gale Online, which is to be a cute little girl (a loli). Though it sounds ridiculous, it was by chance that she got the avatar she wanted all along. We have seen her going through other games and still having that enormous height of hers. We've seen her struggle because of it making her log-out automatically. She was lucky she got the character she wanted. Another thing I want to point out to the main character of Alternative is that inspiration from the character is there. And that is her favorite singer 'Elsa Kanzaki'. This gives us another information that this MC is not really strong or confident in life (due to her complexity), that is except if she has any inspiration, which is the music of her favorite singer. This applies on real life as well. Each and every one of us have inspiration either to someone, dream or things that can support our works.

Then comes her game mechanics. On the first few episodes, I can already tell that she is easy to spot on or killed if she is not taking 'M's advices or go with him. The fact that she is so clueless to the game let us see what she can do. Is she going to be like the main character of SAO, who is so overpowered? Or is she going to be just a nuisance to the team? The answer is right through the middle. Although we see her with her sonic-like abilities, we have to agree that without strategizing, if she goes on to a team fight, she will just get shot to death.

That is why 'M' as the character supporting her in the few episodes have an impact to the situation of "overpowered characters" on anime. Unlike other characters from other series that have over the top powers, Llenn... is just a "The Flash" of GGO. A pro team can single handedly deflect her speed advantage and strategizing it to lure her and get the kill. Without M's guidance or knowledge on the first Squad Jam, Llenn would have been butchered by those "kids". Then we have 'Pitohui', the one who give Llenn more guidance to the game and her first friend. Pitohui's role on the story as a villain is quite good as for some reason her antagonistic traits comes part only at the final episodes. Her avatar does look like an assassin or a mercenary, which is have antagonistic traits, but on their first meetings, the two were friends. Though this friendship is tested by upcoming revelations throughout the episodes. Gun Gale Online's Squad Jam showed the viewers other characters but most notable supporting ones are the SHINC, which comprises of tall and strong women on the first squad jam. Earlier I talked about Llenn being useless or can easily be killed if she is not strategizing against a pro team. The SHINC made an accurate example of it on the final battle on the first Squad Jam. Then after their defeat, revelations of their real life self stunned Karen and actually made her more confident about her complexity which backsup to the 'character development' that a protagonist should have.

Along with her development and confidence on herselve in real life, we are shown by her strategic development in game on the second Squad Jam. This tells that experience is far more superior than power and along with Shinohara, Miyu (Fukaziroh), the second Squad Jam highlighted the 'Pink Devil' development. It is as if on the second Squad Jam, comparing it to the first one, Fukaziroh was like Llenn (the clueless one in the first squad jam) and Llenn was M (the one who knows what to do). This characters are very notable and unique which gives the anime itself on my opinion a better version of the original series. With its opening having the same singer from the season 2's GGO arc, to the pleasant and heart-warming ending of the anime, this show is really spot-on. Not to mention the art of this anime being simple but watcheable. Who doesn't like a pink loli going up against players and beating the heck out of them? And I am not even done yet. Like in the past, Sword Art Online was a massive, hit not only to the anime community but around the world, as its timing of its genre was very on point. With the launch of Virtual Reality and it being popular to the masses, Sword Art Online was like an intake to the VR world. Giving us questions like what are the possibilities of this technology be?..

Alternative does the same thing but not Virtual Reality but 'Battle Royale' games in a whole. For the past months, this type of games have been popular even if you only have PC, PS4, or XBOX, this type of game hits the masses. From H1Z1, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds then to Fortnite, this games have been trending for months on ever single websites on the internet. Even anime fans plays this type of games and coincidentally, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online came out April 2018 this year which was a month where Battle Royale games like Fortnite and Player Unknown's Battlegrounds are on the top list of online games. This anime deliver the 'Battle Royale' genre into the screen perfectly from tactics, weapons, equipments, team fights, and a whole lot more. Of course there are still some differences of the Squad Jam on GGO being different to the 'Battle Royale' games on our generation for example, the scan and it being virtual reality. Although, I could say it is very close to it and that is why Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is a very entertaining show. With its great protagonist and antagonist which have character developments and backgrounds along with the other characters supporting each other from the action scenes to inspiration, Sword Art Online Alternative is a great show to give a try on if you dislike the original series' intake of characters and plot.

Story: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Character: 9/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

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Sword Art Online or SAO for short is the most polarising anime series of all time. It is the definition a series that you will either love or hate. Like with many people on net I have a very low option of Sword Art Online because it was a terrible series. While I don’t completely despise the series anymore mainly because I have seen anime that are in my opinion worse than Sword Art Online it is still a series that I really dislike with a passion

When I first heard about this series being announced a couple moths back after I watched the painfully subpar Sword Art Online movie I was really excited to check it out. The main reason why I really excited for this is because that they are completely removing three of the nasty SAO elements that made the franchise such a piece of shit.

The first nasty element of SAO which the spinoff removed was the Gary Sue preaching idiot Kirito who is by far one of the worst anime protagonists to ever exist from this medium.

The second nasty element of SAO which the spinoff removed is that it was going to be done by A1 Picture aka the EA of Anime. There’s honestly not much to say on this part because if you have seen any almost anime from A1 Pictures you would know incompetent the studio and the staff are.

The final nasty element of SAO which the spinoff removed is that it was going to be written by one of the worst writers ever Rei Kawahara which was honestly the best part about that anncoument because the spinoff is actually going be done a more talented writer Keiichi Sigawa who also did the Kino’s franchise.

With all of these nasty elements of SAO killed off in the spinoff I thought the spinoff could how a different and more appealing light to a series where many other such as myself hate. Now watching all 12 episodes of this spinoff as well the hilarious recap episode I have to say this

This show is a terrible SAO spinoff however on its own Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online is a pretty good anime its own right that barely functions as typical SAO product. Now with that all said hello everyone this is Shawn aka KurataLordStage and welcome to my review of Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online and with that out of the way let’s begin.

Story.

The story follows a Tokyo university student named Karen Kohiruimaki, who's insecure about her height and an introvert. One day, she decides to join GGO on the advice of a friend in order to improve her self-esteem, using the name LLENN. Along the way, she makes friends as she plays the game with other GGO players and fight against hostile players aka PKers and monsters.

Not gonna a lie I thought the story was pretty good for the most part.
Right out the gate this anime makes a great first impression by introducing our main character Karen or LLENN who is trying to adapt to her new surroundings in the Gun Gale Online where instead of being this overpowered Mary Sue she actually takes her time to understand the game as trying to find escapism from the real world thanks to her height complex.

The one thing that really loved about this anime is how it was able to present all of it’s game machermise to the audience to a point where anyone can understand the game machemes as well what it has to offer to the player.

Unlike the original SAO series were all the games that were featured in that series were fundamentally broken thanks to poor world-building and poorly explained game mechanics Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online actually takes it’s time to build its world in the game of Gun Gale Online where it actually propley explains the games mechanics from battle locations, weapon types, weapon attachments, battle tactics, etc. This alone really makes the world of Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online feel alive. It’s not just worldbuiding though. The dialogue too is great as it prefects captures the tone of the battle royal setting where character are seen actually communicating with other and working together instead of being edgy solo players in a battle royal game.

Also the way the characters  in the show interact while playing the battle royal game is great as they all feel like actually gamers who would like to work together to accomplish they goal from talking about stragicly, saving teammates from death, actually honouring squad mates deaths with respect etc. These are the type of stuff that I want to see more in a anime that has a MMORPG/ Battle Royal Setting.

Another thing that I liked about SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online it how self-aware it is. VR Gaming being overall better it still has that issue where the game uses RNG to create an avatar that’s she want by failing with hilarious results thanks to her height.

As much I want to continue praising the show with its solid writing and theme exploration I have now address some of the show issues. While the problems in Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online not series breaking issue still had a couple of issues that I couldn’t ignore at all.

Issue 1. Plot armour. I will admit the plot armour is not as a big problem here when compare to the original Sword Art Online series by Reki Kawahara there were some plot armour moments in the show that kinda upset me. For example in episode 5 after Eva shooting down P chan she literally gets angry and fight backs hand to hand combat Kirito style killing Eva in the progress. I understand that the show want’s to showcase the aggressive hand to hand combat in the series but this was just a cheap and lazy to do it.

Issue 2. Weapon damage constantly. Like with Issue 1 it wasn’t really a big problem however they was a certain battle that bother me and that is  one of Fukaziroh Grenade Launcher bullet’s did not explode the target’s face on impact. Grenade Launcher bullet’s don’t work like this. Unless she has some special type of grenade launcher that would not explode on impact where the show never tells us that she has bullets like that her shooting out the bland grenade launcher was an asspull and never explained.

While issues 1 and 2 were minor problems that the issue 3 one really made me upset quite a bit of how the show even kept one of it’s SAO elements from the Aincrad arc and that is if you die in the game you die in real life bullshit.
The moment when M said that in episode 5 the show kinda lost me because as a person who dislikes main original series of SAO I went into to this series expecting a fun battle royal spinoff that doesn’t feature any of the shitty SAO elements. Luckly that shitty SAO element only affects one to two characters and while everyone is safe from dying in real life by a video game. Speaking of episode 5 the whole episode was out of context and contrived. This was defiantly a low point from this spinoff but least it’s not as bad as any arc in the original SAO series.

Overall I thought the story was pretty above average. It may have some issues but I don’t think they were series breaking like in the original series.

7/10

Characters.
When it comes to the characters of Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online I thought they were pretty good. They may not be well written but they were all fun, interesting and entertaining characters that I liked.
Karen is a pretty solid protagonist overall. Unlike Kirito her reasoning to escape into video games is more justice as she doesn’t like her own height in the real world so to counteract this she goes to GGO and upon surprise the game let’s her be that cute small girl that she’s always wanted to be. This doesn’t stop there she also discovers that she is genuinely enjoys being in that game and because of that GGO becomes her escapism from the real world. This is how you write a character who wants’ escapism in the real world through video games. Also unlike Kirito she actually a interesting character who develops quite a bit in the show by meeting new friends, and rivals that are in GGO.
The rest of characters were pretty solid overall and while they are not excually well written characters because come on this is SAO after all but least the other characters in this show are fun, entertaining and at time interesting compare to any character in the original series.

8/10

Visuals.
Visually Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online is pretty good overall. Yes it may have it’s art failures every now and then but least this show for the most remained consistent.
The characters designs are good for what they are as they look like avatars that you will see in a MMORPG games that features heavy use of guns. The background scenery for both in the game and real world is very polish and well detailed.
The animation is on the other hand is well animated and unlike the original SAO series there was no instance of messy animation.

Sound.
The may come off as unpopular opinion here but really like the soundtrack in SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online more than the original series mainly because apart from swordland, confront battle and some others tracks the soundtrack for original series were not that memorable but that just me.
The soundtrack for Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online is great that is filed with techno, Sci-Fi and gaming tracks that blends well with the overall setting and scenes of the show.
The opening theme Ryuusei by Aoi Eir is a fantastic and catchy opening theme that was a joy to watch.
The ending  theme To see the future by the Seiyuu of Karen Tomori Kusunoki is a great ending theme despite being different in tone.

The voice acting in this show is top notice as you expect as every Seiyuu in the show did a great job with the roles that they were given.
Hopefully this show will get an English Dub sometime in the future.
10/10

Final Thoughts.
I was honestly shocked of how good Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online. Yes it had quite a bit of issues alone the way but they were not constant problems that plagued the original anime to the bottom. The story while having some issues was still fun and entertaining. The characters ranged from good, entertaining to decent, the visuals were great and the soundtrack was awesome. As a person who doesn’t like Sword Art Online this was a good and fun experience that showcased a bit of light from this rabbit hole of a series that people like to make fun off.

If you haven’t seen anything Sword Art Online releated or if you hate the Reki Kawahara side of SAO then I recommend Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online. It may not be one of the better animes of the year but it was still a fairly good show that I liked for the most part.

Final Score 7.5/10

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After seven episodes I am...
1. Not attached to any characters.
2. Still don't know the plot and I hope TO GOD they're not pulling another video game anime where they venture into irl.
3. No character development other than P-Chan (the gun LOL)
4. Haven't seen any difference in their online persona vs. their real ones. Which really defeats the purpose of an isekai?

I started out the anime same as all of you, wanting to see if they could recreate the magic from episode one, two and half of three. However they couldn't. Pulling a Kirito (not a spoiler it happens multiple times in the span of four episodes). She gets a "power up." AN UNEXPLAINABLE ONE???

Then she gets a gun which seeeemmmmssss to be a lot better than all the others despite being the newest player in the game and likely the least experienced.

PK'ing never got an explanation after seven episodes. We are somehow supposed to believe a basic level based, grind it, role playing game was easy for a girl in pink clothing to kill players in the sand.

Lastly, all their explanations are full of dues ex machina. It's a crap ton of "SIKE IM GOD MODE." Then we are forced fed an explanation in the span of two minutes.

In conclusion, their was an opportunity for these guys to create something great but they just slap everything onto you. By the seventh episode you'll be asking yourself..."Wait...what? Why, How? From where..."

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In 2012, we are introduced to the world of Sword Art Online, where it features the most hated over-the-top OP character Kirito, the main MC along with his shenanigans of fantasy-drama with the cast of SAO, and his foundation brings him over to 2014 where we have SAO Season 2: the world of Gun Gale Online (or GGO), with an entirely new cast (but not without the original cast (since it’s a cross-over)) that manages to do well but garner less attention from the original series, but in all essence, Kirito stood still: He saw, he came, and he conquered…ALL, with much hate from the anime consensus.

This year, we have an entirely different GGO, not written by the original creator Reki Kawahara (thank goodness!), but by the author of Kino’s Journey, Keiichi Sigsawa. Knowing the gun-crazy novelist, as mentioned from Pitohui: “Well, he’s a gun freak and a not-so-novelist but afterword writer (that takes serious pride in his work but doesn’t take himself seriously and just wanna have fun). This is what you get when they are combined.” And much to my amazement, SAO Alternative is a damn good and impressive series of not just its light novel adaptation, but the anime series here provided so much fun and realism that’s NOT what the original SAO had with OP characters, the MMORPG or game-fantasy setting and fanservice, just plain old good shooting and characters to boot AND finally THE SAO series that is worthy to be discussing about here.

This story follows the main best girl (IMO) Karen “LLENN” Kohirumaki, not the typical kind of girl that you see on the streets, because she is insanely tall (183cm or 6 ft’) and has problems coinciding with society that are the status quo. Relinquished, but not out, she sets on the task of finding the best VR game that suits her wellbeing of being shorter and chibi-fied, and none other than GGO (with her AmuSphere) is she able to take advantage of her small sized avatar of her dreams! And it is there that she finds the friendly, yet sadistic Pitohui, just the typical friend looking out for each other at first…until her invitation (and pressure) to LLENN to enter in “Squad Jam” (which is SAO Season 2’s Bullet of Bullets (BoB) team battle royale variation) faces both a challenge and a fight to the death as Pitohui’s obsession with the original SAO features made her lose consciousness (or rather, becoming the 2nd Kirito) and her fight in SJ2 proves that.

So, with the storytelling and how director Masayuki Sakoi (one of the best from Studio 3Hz) decided to pace Sigsawa’s adaptation, it is apparent that for those who entered this with no know-how of SAO Season 2: GGO will be lost (but not by much), and the pacing of the series which is fast, but progressively it slows down to give the plot more context and its true intentions here and there. Overall, it is a well-thought-out story which gives more exposition and its characters life out of the ordinary. And…not to mention that recap episode where Sigsawa himself has lavished out his own parody (as he is famous for that) in Episode 5.5 where he ‘sponsors’ SJ inserts through his self-acclaimed “afterword” (or after-credit rolls) through silly voices and sounds into the battle footage, oh what a bliss!

The characters here tell the exact same story from how they are made from the ground-up, and as a result, they flow much better than the SAO counterparts it came from:

LLENN, as a character, much from her chibi avatar cuteness that cannot be mistaken as a kindred spirit in battle, she is a character that goes all-out in doing what she does best: Shooting, make and gather friends, more shooting, and a blood-bath between her and Pitohui rounds up what her activities lie in. Be warned as her real and VR life are two separate entities: the tall yet humble self vs. the crazy, all-pink character mascot that she has garnered popularity amongst Squad Jam players as one with the most potential. Engaging with LLENN felt like a journey of sorts (see the similarity?), from her alliance with Goushi Aousgi (better known as M in GGO) in the first Squad Jam to friendship with Miyu and fighting together in SJ2 against Pitohui and M and their mercenaries. Overall, LLENN is a character that can best be resembled as another Sinon, but not to that extent where it gets all technical, and with her P90 (often calls it P-chan), she can go anywhere. Overall, LLENN’s character writing may not be brilliant, but it’s fun to see her insane adventures and risks to be the best of the best.

Pitohui, the character that is out of form and looks hideous, first appears like the stereotypical challenger out from the ashes, but immediately her scarred or tattooed face immediately gives away the vibe that she is not the typical challenger like the many out there in SJ. Suffice to say, it’s her addiction through the SAO back then that made her this way: the aggressive, careful and meticulous yet murderous intent that shaped her the way in GGO, even though the 2nd round of Squad Jam where she mercilessly slaughters enemies the EXACT way how Kirito did in GGO with the light saber. But thankfully, this is one of the few traces of the original series and doesn’t go to an extent to replicate what happened, so crisis averted. Overall, Pitohui is a character you wouldn’t want to mess with, because she gets her work cut out and done on the spot.

M, the armour/guards-man, he is the typical buff character…until his deal with Pito shows up his desperate face, just as many out there (but not as stressful as the original series where you die in the game, it’s game over in real life). But I can tell one thing, he’s as robust as a rock with his tank-like shield which repels shots to the maximum and I have to say that M makes light work of how a support character and a team member should be. The man with guts to analyze the best of the situation, I approve!
The characters don’t quite have much to boot and/or say, given their exposure that doesn’t give much information from the start, but as the series subsequently progresses, it gives the characters much substance and their identity uncovered and recognized.

In the art and animation department, it is absolute proof that Studio 3Hz could take any adaptation, fill in with their own unique quirks and still make the series look as realistic as it is. Unfortunately, as much as the original series (SAO S2: GGO) has been shown, the art style may lack in some areas which A-1 Pictures have done well capturing the essence of GGO in its entirety. But what it makes up for with sacrificing art quality is with animation, and it helps that 3Hz is hands down one of the best when it comes to animation quality, and throughout the immense action, it doesn’t sweat a beat, and fuses with the art style quite well, making a decent art style still look appealing to the eye.

The musical department, is quite frankly, the high point of the series. Eir Aoi has done it again, with the 1st OP of SAO: GGO “Ignite” in 2014, and in comes the alternate version with “Ryuusei” as the OP, and honestly, is lit and on fire, and immensely watchable, so much that I never escape the OP just to hear the goddess come back to reign in her high-pitched voice that truly is just satisfying to listen to. And let’s not forget LLENN’s VA, famous seiyuu Tomori Kusunori with her ED “To see the future”, and just like the OP, is a good ED to end the series’ episodes, and overall, this OST is a soundtrack that’s worth having, and is my No.1 favourite this season.

Overall, SAO Alternative: GGO is a series that if you’re coming in from SAO and reeling in from the saltiness of the series (which I don’t blame you), it’s hard to get adjusted of this gem of a show, albeit done by an author of jokes and a different production team, but promise me, forget the travesty you know that is SAO and stride into the Alternate: GGO that is everything except what Reki Kawahara had envisioned, with absolutely no expectations, and see how much this show will amaze you from the get-go. If you haven’t watched SAO, GOOD, go watch this one, because you don’t need to know GGO to enjoy this series.

As for myself, this is my AOTS alongside Golden Kamuy, and this has been proven by an ex-SAO fan who thinks that this was none other than exceptional, more so than the originals. A great job and well done, Studio 3Hz and the production team for providing an SAO that mirrors Sigsawa’s ideals instead of Kawahara’s, and is fun and enjoyable from start to finish.

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This will be my first review on MAL. What compelled me to write this reivew is not because I enjoyed SAO Gun Gale, but rather what an abhorrent disaster it is. Few of the animes I have watched in mylife time where I get to the point of throwing up just watching it. Recenlty SAO-GG & Tokyo Ghoul:re are top on that list.
Story: 0/10
People who have watched SAO series do know the basic formula how SAO series is based around MMORPGs or JRPGS games. It's much appealing to individuals who have played such games they can kind of relate to it. SAO-GG is not based on RPG style but PUBG,COD & Battlefield style. You just go out in full-drive and just shoot people in game for the heck of it, there seems to be no real objective,no goals or no tasks, so there is never a sense of something bigger going on. I can't even call the story a shallow one, as it doesn't have a story. Who approved it for airing warrants an invistigation in it self.

Character 1/10
Characters are as shallow as they come. No character development, all of them are designed the same, no depth, as a gamer you cannot relate in the least. They give gaming a bad name. It just become so hard to watch them.

Enjoyment 1/10
This anime is not enjoyable in the least. It will leave a bad taste in your mouth and may start to wonder how can someone make such a catostraphe. I found its humour lacking, character bad looking, music tasteless, even the game world is bad to look at. SAO Aincard world was a treat to look at, it had imagination and art, it gave a feeling if RPGs became a reality how would it look. But this SAO-GG, its just plain stupid.

Overall
I was expecting an anime which would contain a story in which stakes would be high. The gameworld would be great to look at, their would be tension n suspense in the fights. Mature character which would make sound decisions and leave us baffled. But instead we got kid girly characters with not sense of tension of suspense. Plan stupid story line, Overpowered protaginist and that for no reason. Things moulded into ways to just make the work easy for the writer.It's just the very definition of a bad tv show. Don't watch it. Simple as that.

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For years, Sword Art Online franchise told us a story about being inside a VRMMO game (or ARMMO in Ordinal Scale case) and while the setting or the world building is very good enough, they never have given us any good story or protagonist characterization (I'm looking at you, Kirito). Suddenly an adaptation of a light novel spin-off based on Sword Art Online franchise came to us and exceeded its original story it based on. Using the game setting of Sword Art Online : Phantom Bullet arc, the VRMMO game called Gun Gale Online, I will tell you why this spin-off is far more better than its original story.

The most important thing is of course, characterization. They used one important theme around building LLENN as a character and that is insecurity. It is very shown that LLENN or Karen have an insecurity about her height that is far taller than anyone else. She thought that being tall was not cute at all. Hence, she hoped that if she entered the world of VR, she could become shorter and cuter. She hopped from one game to another just to get a perfect avatar for her to fulfill her insecurity. Pitohui on the other side used game to suppress her suicidal tendency and sadistic nature just for LLENN to enter the fray and snap her out of it. For me, I have the same way of thinking as LLENN. Game is somewhere that you should have fun because sometimes reality is harsh and you just want to run from them for a while.

While the original story itself has already made a good game mechanics, this spin-off really used them well and even added more things that really interesting. First, how the stats really pay off at the battles. LLENN have more AGI than most people it made her very insanely fast while Fukaziroh have more STR than most people it affected her ability to wield more weapons than anyone and of course, her power to do melee. Second, how they used the bullet line as a signaling system. Until now, bullet line just shown as a prediction line to avoid the bullets. To actually used them as an effective way of communication, it never crossed my mind until this adaptation came. They used it as a marking for party members to move stealthy or separately. And lastly, the immortal object. I think it is very smart to use dead bodies as shield as it was an immortal object that cannot be penetrated. It was a perk that is very interesting to be part of our strategy in a game about guns and bullets.

The music is certainly good. The songs that being sung by the voice of Kanzaki Elza have this vibe of Aimer in her voice making the songs feel deeper and better in my opinion. Of course, you should never miss the opening song. After a long time of hiatus, Eir Aoi came back and sang the opening for this anime. For me, it is fitting since she was the one who sang the first opening of SAO II and it was a great reunion for the fans of both SAO and Eir Aoi in general.

Overall, this anime has exceeded all of my expectations and rise above its original source, Sword Art Online. With how the anime ended, I do really wish to see this anime being continued into second season if the source material or the light novel still have more story to go. It is a huge kudos for the writer of both the source material and anime.

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This anime is aimed towards children. Plot development doesn't really exist because the story is just way too predictable, though next to nothing happens in the first place anyway. Character development doesn't really exist also because of these reasons. This is true especially given the fact that the MC is a speed-hacking, invulnerable teleporting omnipotent 4-dimensional nano-hitbox with an annoying voice. Nothing interesting happens in the game when its focus is on the MC because every event is predominantly determined by her speed hacks. This anime would tell a more interesting story if the SAO theme of it didn't exist.

After 5 episodes in which is almost half of the whole series, GGO still fails to give us the motivation of protagonist(Karen). What is Karen fighting for and why should we care and root for her? The premise is she play GGO because the character that she got is short and cute, and therefore she is playing GGO. However, beyond this, I can't really find why Karen is playing this game, which leads to the character being boring and uninteresting. What does winning the tournament means to Karen, and what does she gain from it? Well... All I see is nothing. All I know after the first arc is that Pito might be really bad for some reason.

Throw away all the bullshit action and how it doesn't make sense. I just want to talk about the story. Even in SAO, we know that the protagonist wants to escape the death game by winning it. In ALO, we know that the protagonist's waifu is in danger and he wants to save her. In GGO, we know that there's is a death gun in the game which the protagonist needs to fight against. In ALO2, there's a girl dying? Despite the story being mediocre, there's still a story and a conflict. In GGO alternative, except for a random tournament which leads to nothing, we can't really see the conflict and what drives the protagonist to move forward.

In one sentence, this anime is even "trash-er" than SAO season 1 and 2 despite written by another author. I am disappointed.

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TL;DR at the bottom

Well for the people that hate Kirito he is not here so good for them, but it does not make the show better for it. Instead the show is centered around a girl with a height complex. So how tall is she you may ask is she 6'2" maybe a even 7' feet tall? No she is 6' tall which is very big for a girl but is about 3" bigger then the average Japaneses male. People say this show dose not have have any of the old SAO cast but the main is sinon with a height complex instead of a gun complex.

Story
For the most part there is not much here only plot armor and more plot armor. If SOA had one thing going for it its that the bullshit plot armor was not linked to a stat that everyone has. If agility helped soo much why would anyone build anything else. Then there is the military man who teaching the short girl to F***ing use a knife reverse grip making her reach shorter then it already was because anime looking cool does not = practical.

Art
Art was good nothing else to say just good

Sound
Same as art just good no bug problems here

Character
Nothing much here yet, 4 episodes in but in a 12 episode show this is a bit worrying

Enjoyment
Average, nether here nor there if u can get over the bullshit plot armor that no one else has even tho they may have played longer then the main character

TL;DR
The animation, sound, and voice acting is good but there are over 100+ anime that are leagues ahead of the quality of this anime and the whole SOA Franchise, such as Darling in the FranXX and many others. So for the SOA haters that which this and praise this for not being a shit as the original you do not need to go far to get better writing then shit and this show is about a good as a fan fic set in the shitshow that is GGO, wish they went with one of the other seeds that they showed in the character creation episode they all looked better then GGO T_T.

PS. The writer of this LN knows that being shorter does not make that stride of your legs longer right? Generally it makes you slower which is why most of the fastest runners have long legs.

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*SPOILER FREE*

When Sword Art Online first came out, I was still an anime newbie. Ignorant to harems and perfect Gary Stu characters, I was impressed by Kirito, and just like most young kids, I thought he was great.

In hindsight, I decided I didn't like him for the same reasons I used to like him. I assumed that if he was written better, then Sword Art Online and Gun Gale Online would have been better-- but alas, even when he's not even in this show, I find myself bored to tears.

As a geek myself, I thought I would enjoy the whole Gun Gale Online world. After all, I did develop a liking for Sinon from the second season of SAO, and I also liked the virtual reality idea, both in SAO and in virtual reality arcs in other shows like Hunter x Hunter.

However, this show just wasn't what I wanted. It is dull and repetitive and very predictable. Not to mention that the characters are flat and boring. I don't give a flying fuck about a single one of them-- which is rare for me, seeing as I adopt characters as my children regularly. In the first few episodes, the characters showed promise. It seemed they might actually stand a chance of being different from the stereotypes of SAO. However, they read kinda like outlines of characters rather than full-fledged characters. It's boring to watch it because the people in it are so dull.

At this point, I'm not sure where the plot is going and I'm not sure if there is a plot, really. It seems to go in a lot of different directions but it fails to keep the audience interested. The entire show is just two VERY long fight sequences. I was hoping for perhaps a Gon-Hisoka (Hunter x Hunter) style face-off-- main character is weaker than opponent at first and gets beat, and then later garners enough strength to beat the opponent through perseverance and training. However, this was just two long battles split up into about 4-5 episodes each. That's pretty much it. I was also hoping we would get a bit more of LENN/Karen's character in here since one of the main selling points was her playing games because of her insecurity. While she does grow more comfortable with her height at some point, it's not really gradual or explained. She's just suddenly okay with it after being embarrassed of it her whole life, and the subplot just ends there.

The songs (the opening and closing especially) are pretty mediocre, but the Elsa Kanzaki bits are pretty good in my opinion. The background music and animation is also pretty stunning, so if you're not too interested in characters and plot, this might still be a really good watch for you.

I would recommend this if you: like guns, like long fight sequences, like lolita chicks, like femdom, like sadism/masochism relationships

I would NOT recommend this if you: want something with plot, like having deep characters with actual personalities, don't really like shows that are just continuous action, want some more meaningful or overarching plot like the imminent death plot of SAO, want a hero/heroine that grows or changes, hate sadistic/masochistic characters/relationships

Have a great day everyone!

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The fact that the original SAO has a higher score than this is frankly appalling.
Looking around reviews on here and Crunchyroll, as well as several anime discord servers, I usually see people rating this anime negatively either because it is SAO, or because it isn't SAO enough, rather than being judged on it's own ("Alternative") merits.
I don't need to go through the flaws of the original SAO, it's already been beaten to a pulp in the anime community. What I do need to say though, is that besides the immediately noticeable decreased production value, Gun Gale Online is a clear improvement over the original SAO in almost every narrative aspect.
While the original focused more on the actions that Kirito did within the world of Sword Art Online, GGO focuses more on what outside reason each character has for playing a virtual reality game. The theme of escapism is more poignant and relevant, and is less seemingly set up for romance. The main character, LLENN, is also instantly more relatable and likable in 5 episodes than Kirito in two full anime seasons and a movie. Her motives, personality, and goals are set up very well and as a character, she is continuing to flesh out and become a big favorite of mine within the isekai genre. She feels like her own character and not a bizarre power fantasy.
The fight scenes, while not as flashy or expensive as the original anime series, are instantly more compelling due to the extensive (and ridiculous) tactics that are involved and feel at home in a battle royale setting.
GGO's supporting cast aren't as fleshed out or feel as close to the protagonist as they could be at this point in the series, but each character feels like they belong in the setting with their own motive for playing the game and escaping into it.
I can only hope that the pacing kicks up and that the production doesn't fall apart, I'll be reviewing this in full again once the series concludes.

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Honestly this anime is insanely enjoyable. This review is spoiler free by the way.

After finishing this show I went to write a review immediately because of how much I loved the ending and how it wrapped up.

First the ending. This is the most complete, wrapped up, and satisfying endings I have seen in a while. I felt so complete after watching it. The characters ALL grew and developed and it fit so perfectly that I wouldn't have ended it another way. In the trend of seasonal, 12 episode anime; this is definitely one of the most complete anime I have seen.

The story progressed very well, from the beginning to end the motivations were clear. LLENN/Karen wanted to play a video game to kind of escape here height anxiety. Probably one of the most realistic motives I have seen for a VRMMORPG series I have read or watched. A lot of people, but not all who go online and make online friend do it because of issues/insecurities in real life as LLENN does in this story. This alone really gives the watchers a lot of reason to relate to LLENN as a character even if you aren't an internet person, people go places or do things to escape the hard parts of reality.

The characters are all very enjoyable LLENN is fun to watch, while some people see her as annoying, I can only disagree. M is very funny to watch especially as it gets closer to the end and seeing LLENN's reaction to some of the stuff he says. The gel of characters really adds natural sort of unforced comedy that I think is hard to come by these days.

Overall without spoiling I don't really have much to else say but, this show is VERY enjoyable and worth the watch, the real rating of the show is probably closer to an 8 but because i enjoyed every second i gave it a 9.

The bad in this show is just a lot of the logical stuff though, all the characters beside the main ones of course have a lot of trouble aiming because they aren't main characters. LLENN is extremely broken and can run faster then anyone, problems with the game mechanics etc. These issues are able to be over looked easily by me due to my personal investment with the characters and story, I don't really see the game mechanics and game logic flaws as a problem because i don't see it as a focus, but I can see how some other people might find this awfully annoying and are unable to get over it.

This show is worth your time and thank you for reading my first review.

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Story: The story takes place a few years after the release of Sword Art Online. It centers around our main heroine Karen Kohiruimaki. She enters the world of Gun Gale online to get away from the issue she has being a very tall woman. She tries many different games but each one gives her a tall default character. That is until she enters Gun Gale online and becomes the Pink Devil LLENN.

I actually liked the idea of why Karen wanted to play games. Because honestly thats what we do. When we are sick of dealing with situations we don't want to deal with we turn to Anime, Video games or whatever else to distract us from our problems.

She then meets a fun amount of people including Pito, M, the Amazons. With this the Gun Gale story builds into something stronger.

Art: The art and animation were fantastic in my opinion. Taking out blood and replacing it with red pixels was a great. you could still sense it when someone was getting shot or cut.
The main thing I liked about the animation was the First Person Point of view they went to at certain times. For instance LLENN is running in episode one but they have it so that you, the viewer, is seeing what she sees. I though that was pretty awesome.

Sound: The Voice acting was great and i thought the BGM and music throughout the anime was really well done as well. A lot of intense parts were paired with some great music.

Characters: Aww man Pito and LLENN were all you really needed in this anime. I was constantly struggling deciding who my favorite is between the two of them. (After the last episode it ended up being LLENN/Karen) The supporting cast was really fun too. M was hilarious at times and Miyu was pretty funny. I wish she was in the anime more in the beginning.

Enjoyment: I am surprised how much I enjoyed this anime. I thought it was not going ot be anything special but it turned out to be really great.

Overall: I honestly found this better then the original Sword Art Online. Now I did like Gun Gale better but only slightly. I just felt like this anime had everything that Sword Art didn't. An overall better cast of characters, better story, no romantic drama garbage, and a good ending.
It's nothing like Sword Art and is basically a stand alone show. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun shootem up type of anime.

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This show is a spin-off in Sword Art Online franchise and features a completely new cast in next “death game lite” scenario. Do these major changes mean improvement over the original? No. SAO:GGO tanks story and characters as spectacular as its predecessor, minus those action sequences, that made SAO at least serviceable.
RATING: 3 – bad.

STORY: We did not forget the obligatory café info dump & rape scene.
I do not research upcoming shows, or the names behind a project, often I don’t even read the synopsis; the only entries I may recognize are the title and the studio. After several weeks I learned, that apparently some big shot was working on the script, thus GGO is already a much better anime. Nope, I do not see any improvements. You don’t believe me? Let’s play SAO-Bingo.
I am asking for an overpowered main character, do we have one overpowered protagonist somewhere? Bingo! LLENN is abnormally fast and small compared to everyone else. Plot armor, is plot armor a thing? Bingo! LLENN’s first tournament or Pito’s headshot are nothing but plot armor. Next is an obligatory rape scene, can we see some questionable content? Bingo! Molesting dead virtual bodies is a critical hit for me. Finally, I offer café scene containing info dump! Bingo! But wait, it is not just a scene, it is an entire EPISODE. BINGO!
Not only does the show wander aimlessly until the obligatory café info dump episode, it also manages to tell nothing of importance afterwards. This anime is just a slow tournament arc void of any narrative and filled with underdeveloped caricatures. Not to mention that GGO as a game is made even more boring and dumb.

CHARACTERS: Kirito is a better main character.
Initially, our main character, Karen, was looking for means of escapism, because she has a complex concerning her height. This trait is the only integral point in her characterization and together with the whole escapism theme quickly loses any relevance after first episodes. Motivations are nonexistent. I already mentioned plot armor, so moving on to the antagonist, Pito.
She is a good player and nuts. That was fast.
The support cast is just as amazing: we have a group of middle school girls, who want to improve their teamwork in a virtual game by fighting against militant squads doing their training in GGO. Makes sense to me. Moreover, there are friend B and friend M. All the other side characters are morons, as players and as human beings.

ART & ANIMATION: Pink loli in a brown desert.
At least the original SAO had some above average visuals and several well-made action scenes, thus could be discarded as popcorn entertainment. SAO:GGO fails to deliver even this much.
Some characters models cater to moe fans, others look like failed experiments; there is no cohesive art style shared among anything. Backgrounds consist of unimpressive desert, forest or grey urban areas. Animation is present, interesting or engaging action is not.

SOUNS: Average.
Background music as well as OP or ED are average, not even one track stands out in any way, good or bad. Original voice act is anime 101.

Honestly, pretty much every anime is better than SAO:GGO, even the original SAO stands above this mess. Just go watch something else. If you value it higher than the original, because some big names were working on it, take off your bias glasses and look again.

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“ GGO: Alternative has a lot of potentials, specifically near the mid-end of the series, but it ultimately leaves the viewer unsatisfied. “

GGO: Alternative begins a bit slowly - to the point where I almost dropped it - but the first few episodes are effective in establishing characters, real-world settings, and virtual game mechanics. The action scenes in the Space Jam competition (revealed at the beginning of episode one) are lacklustre, mainly because there isn’t much purpose behind the battles aside from the basic “I’ll beat them all and become the winner!” idea behind all contests. I stuck with the anime because of the protagonist’s reasons for playing GGO, and because I saw potential in what the show was doing with the escapism motif.

The anime picks up its pace, and by episode six I’m sort of invested. This is where a bigger conflict is presented, and where the new motifs of life versus death and virtual versus real are established and connected to the already existing escapism motif. Still, something about the plot makes it feel like it lacks substance. It is a light watch even after devastating events are brought to light. The development of the characters continues and the plot thickens, with the tension building slowly but gradually.

When the climax finally arrives, it is splendid, wild, and unpredictable. It’s the part I most genuinely enjoy watching and that has me at the edge of my seat. After the final confrontation, I feel a sense of shock and satisfaction, and it feels like sitting through all the episodes preceding these had been worth the watch...but then it keeps going.

The final episode of GGO: Alternative brings me back to square one, or even farther back than that. The satisfaction I felt from the climax was utterly crushed! The ending is predictable, the motifs and themes were shit on SO HARD, the characters abandon all their development for a comedic little skit to finish off the show, and none of it even makes any sense! There is no closure at all! I had initially thought the show would improve, which is why I stuck with it, but I am not exaggerating when I say that the ending threw away all my hope for this show.

To sum it up, I believe GGO: Alternative has a lot of potentials, specifically near the mid-end of the series, but it ultimately leaves the viewer unsatisfied. The development of characters is one of the things I like, but even that wasn’t done outstandingly; the art is good but basic; the action is decent throughout with a few truly outstanding moments (mainly during the climax); the soundtrack is pretty good but tends to serve more as a sensory overload tactic in battles (the intro is pretty solid though!), and the themes are promising but left somewhat undecided on what they want to say because of that TERRIBLE ending.

Oh, and there are two bisexual characters, both of which are viewed as weird and predatory. That was a bit off-putting...

This anime is far better than the one it was adapted from, which I have also watched a bit of, but that by no means makes it good.

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Preface:

I had the highest of all hopes going into SAO Alternative: GGO. SAO II brought in a cool, adventurous mechanic to VRMMO gameplay--guns--that was showcased well by our main characters. I think this installment to the series ultimately fell flat in the grand scheme of things.

Story (2 - Dreadful):

This season's story was a bit lackluster. The main story itself revolved around preventing the death of a dear friend, but the way it was conduced made it feel as if the plot was never going to head in that direction anyhow. Certainly, there were times when the story fell grim because of what was happening, but this season in particular portrayed everything vibrantly and with enthusiasm.

Another issue I felt with SAO Alternative's story was that it felt cliche and predictable. In SAO, competition was rare because everything was about survival. This doesn't mean that there wasn't lively competition, however. In the initiation battle between Heathcliff and Kirito, we experienced a battle that was cool and unpredictable. The turnout of this battle left us with speculation and wonder. In SAO II, GGO was teeming with competition. While facing Sterben (Death Gun) and Sinon in the Battle of Bullets, there were definitely times of unpredictability. In this new series, however, every episode seemed cliche and predictable:

- It was obvious that our protagonist would fall at some point; how they picked themselves back up was key
- The outcome of the series was rather predictable
- The fact that our main character would triumph at the most useful times due to courage and vigor was cliche and predictable

With all of these things and more, SAO Alternative's story just seemed bland and like what has been produced in ALL of media beforehand. There really isn't much that sets this series off from a lot of other series besides the fact that it's apart of the SAO franchise.

Art (2 - Dreadful):

The art style was... worse than expected. Considering GGO is set in a dystopian-esque and grim environment, having a light, balanced contrast to this was fun and intuitive (but only at certain times). After awhile, the colours started to distract more than what was going on within the anime. Some of the artwork was just too much and overall unappealing. For example, having a full body of pink in a full slasher scene was just odd to see. Not only this, but you would have scenes of seriousness when neither the character nor their artwork displayed was serious or seemed like such. This part of the artwork was really annoying.

SAO does well with battle scenes (for the most part). All of their battle scenes are interesting, fast-paced, full of life, and so on. Somehow, SAO Alternative's art did not convey many of these factors, however. For deaths, the death marker from SAO II would appear, but the way characters died were often uninteresting. Rather than taking time to show bullets flying through people, for the most part, players' deaths were symbolised by a simple gunshot wound and the death marker icon. Even bullet fire seemed lazy at times when all I saw across my screen were yellow-orange spikes rushing in a general direction. This type of art-work was way too repetitive and overall unattractive.

Sound (3 - Poor):

There isn't too much that is memorable about this season's soundtrack. We included live performance music (where characters in the story would play on screen) into the series, however, even those song selections were bland and forgettable. There isn't really much going for this season's music selection. If anything, the selections here are a major downgrade compared to that of the past two seasons.

Regarding sound, an interesting element of SAO Alternative was that there were times when there was a lack of sound. Using this to emphasise different themes was inventive, especially in the SAO series where so much music/audio is playing.

Character (1 - Pathetic):

Our supposed/upfront antagonist doesn't feel villainous enough and our main character has insecurities. These two types of people do not go well together whatsoever, especially when they are meant to clash. In my opinion, the worst thing about this series is their characters. They are all uninspiring, bland, uninteresting, or are supposed to be a certain way but are not. In some cases, our characters are even the opposite of what they are supposed to represent or feel which is quite unfortunate.

I warn those reading, if you desire an anime with good characters, I do not believe SAO Alternative has any.

Enjoyment (1 - Pathetic):

As stated before, I headed into the anime expecting greatness and was quite disappointed when I had reached the end. Episode by episode, it seemed as if the anime was getting worse somehow, and--especially with the last three or so episodes--I found myself wanting to drop the anime rather than finish it altogether. SAO Alternative is not an anime that moved me whatsoever or made me feel any different after watching it. It really just fell flat towards the end and made me question what anime to look forward to next.

Overall (2 - Dreadful):

I enjoyed bits and pieces of this season, but in its entirety, I cannot name a single reason to watch this again. It's not that this series didn't vibe with me either because I had so much fun watching SAO II and desired more GGO. I just don't believe this was the right approach as not much seemed satisfactory about this season. The characters were easily one if its worse points, the anime lacked fluidity, and was just cliche and predictable. Because of these few points, I rate SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online a 2 (Dreadful).

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Repost 3rd Time in a row

Has some spoilers in it.


WTF were Studio 3Hz thinking when they come up with shit like this? the story plot was basically this was a drker version of Net Juu where prople were finding an escape from reality and enter to a a level of excitement away from the mediocre in the virtual world. So pretty much, the plot is cliche and pretty much lack any excitement since the characters were safe behind their console. anyway the fact is this anime's story plot was as boring as Isekai wa Smartphone. The art was no concern of mine, since I don't give any shit in it and seeing the main character wore pink as oppose to black, grey or green was just soooooooooo pathetic. Sound, geeezzzz, no comment on that, but it was kinda odd that Seiyuu Hikasa Yoko's voice were cast differently , were in the game she's Pitohui while in the real world she is Riza's manager. So overall. this is one way of desecrating the SAO franchise, so my verdict:

Story-Mediocre 5: Since the plot itself was just too cliche as any anime that has a cyber punk genre in it.

Art-Pathetic 1: And that's for LLEN's combat outfit.

Sound-fair 6: I need not say why cu'z I just don't give a fuck.

Character- Pathetic 1: We have a university girl who has some form of inferiority complex about his height and her friends were a bunch of middle school girls and another gamer whom she partnered up for the Squad Jam 2 to beat a player who has some suicidal tendency, a guy who is a lolicon/ masochist/ loser who should die in the real world, an antagonist in the game world whom for some reason is either stupid for not realizing how lucky she was for not getting into the 1st SAO or nuts who should be seeing a shrink either way she the main pathetic character here.

Enjoyment - Poor 3: This is one anime where it's ok to skim some episode since the main characters were gonna be safe anyways and they're just as pathetic both in the game and in the real world.

Overall-Poor 3: This was just another knock-off of the ff: Net-Juu no Susume, Isekai wa Smartphone, Netoge no Yome and Gamers.....so realistically Studio 3Hz just desecrated the SAO franchise, and just watching this makes me wanna go to Japan and do what Sanzo of Sayuki does to Goku when he is pissed to the, studio exe and the original creator of this cliche thing.

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SAO Alternative GGO: A fun series that served as the opening act



SAO Alternative GGO had only one function: to warm up the public for the arrival of the main dish of the franchise, Alicization, which is coming in October. And the series fulfilled.

The novel written by Keiichi Sigsawa (known for novels like Allison and its sequels "Lillia and Treize" and "Meg and Seron", which resulted in the anime Allison & Lillia) and supervised by Reki Kawahara (creator of SAO) was never ambitious nor did it seek to overshadow the original story

Therefore, it was foreseeable that after the announcement of the start of Alicization for next October, the GGO anime will be released before; this in order to prepare the stage. Doing it later or during would not have made sense because all the attention would be focused on the work of Kawahara and this spinoff would have passed without pain or glory.

Let's not forget that the 3Hz studio, with just 5 years of foundation, is still a novel studio that seeks to position itself within a highly competitive industry; for that reason, seeking to adapt something from one of the most successful franchises in the medium, and then try to compete with their Magnum Opus would have been totally absurd.

From there, I'm not even going to enter the debate on whether this spinoff is better or worse than the original work. It is true that the arches of the novel adapted in the first two seasons of the anime (Aincrad, Fairy Dance, Phantom Bullet, Early and Late and Mother's Rosario) have many flaws (for something Kawahara himself is rewriting all that in the SAO Progressive saga ); however, when we enter the world of Underworld, within the arc of Alicization, everything changes and the rest of the frames, spinoff included, are reduced to mere companions.

When I have to talk about Alicization I will elaborate on this point, but for now let's go back to what brought us here today. SAO Alternative GGO was a series told in good form, with an easy to follow plot, loaded with good action and combat sequences that were handled in a great way. By the way, from here Spoilers come.

In fact, if it had stayed there it would have been a series of round action. Unfortunately, Sigsawa wanted to put the element "someone's life in the game is in danger" and that's where the plot (and therefore the series) showed the seams.

Since then, there were many attempts to sell us that Pitohui was in danger of death; however, the more they explained it, the more absurd it was. So much so, that it went against the much-needed "suspension of disbelief", which ends up taking the spectator out of the plot.

Not to mention that trying to make us believe that the only way to help this maniac was defeating her in the game was even more bizarre. And the police? Even in the Aincrad incident, the government got involved almost from the start; which also did in the case of Death Gun, so there is no reason to believe that they would turn a blind eye on this occasion.

Even accepting that Goushi really is a good for nothing, that he is, Karen from the beginning proved to be a competent woman, so her attitude did not make sense. It would have been more reasonable for everything to be taken for a game and to simply go with the flow. However, seeing her try to defeat Pitohui with the conviction that she was saving her life; and worse, with the fear that the maniac could die was simply surreal.

Therefore, every time this was mentioned, all the magic and atmosphere of the series was lost. It was as if all of a sudden they turned on the light while they told you a horror story. Fortunately, in the end that did not have all the relevance that was tried to give and the focus was always more towards the side of the action and the combats; Otherwise, the series would have ended very badly.

In fact, it seemed to me a good point that the whole matter of Llenn and Pitohui's encounter in the real world was handled with humor, because it marked a change of tone that was unexpected and appropriate in equal parts. Above all, considering that the series did a terrible job hiding the true identity of Pitohui.

In addition, the fact that the letter that Karen sent to Elsa was used as a main part of the outcome served very well so that point would not remain as a loose end.

Regarding the technical section, 3Hz studio did a competent job in character design, direction and animation. Of the three, I highlight the last because the combat sequences were very well worked; and let's not forget that they are the heart of an action anime.

Regarding the soundtrack, I'll say that Kajiura-sensei's absence is quite noticeable, but Starving Trancer made a great effort to show us themes that accompanied what happened on screen without clashing. Of course, within this section I have to highlight the opening "Ryuusei", played by Eir Aoi, which came as a glove to this anime. It was a nice touch to choose Eir as a gesture to connect with the main series.

In short, a very moving series, with excellent combat sequences and a simple, but well-armored plot, which fully fulfilled its role of heating engines for the arrival of the crown jewel, Alicization. It is true, that its attempt to sell us that Pitohui was in danger of death and could only be saved by beating her in the game was a joke; But at the end of the day, SAO Alternative GGO was not a dramatic series, but an action anime, so do not give it too many laps.


SUMMARY

A series of well-armed action that only got messed up when it wanted to get into the drama.

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